In praise of ... Paddington Bear

Fifty years ago a stowaway bear from darkest Peru arrived in London, clutching a battered suitcase. Welcomed into the home of Mr and Mrs Brown, and renamed after the station where he was found, Paddington stepped into the lives of generations of children. With his red bush hat and blue duffel coat - and, of course, with a marmalade sandwich in hand - he remains instantly recognisable. To mark the half century his creator, Michael Bond, has written Paddington Here and Now, which goes on sale today. In his first novel in 29 years, Paddington faces his most threatening adventure: he has a run-in with police and is interrogated over his residency status. It is easy for us to forget that Paddington is an immigrant - a refugee at that - so long has he been around; he seems as British as they come. In creating him Bond had in mind the child evacuees who fled wartime London with labels tied around their necks. But Paddington's journey is also representative of all those from abroad who have made for London during his long years in the city. And can there be a better model than Mr and Mrs Brown for the open and welcoming Britain to which we should aspire? Or than Paddington himself, with his polite manner and sunny optimism, for the kind of temper more citizens should have? Fewer are quite so fond of marmalade nowadays, and the endearing bear represents a postwar milieu that has passed. But Britain must always make room for those, like Paddington, who "try so hard to get things right".